Fifty-five preschool children, ages three and four, used an Apple II microcomputer to learn reading readiness concepts of "above,""below,""left," and "right." Available during indoor play periods for three weeks at a nursery school on the Stanford University campus, the microcomputer was accepted…

Author describes several studies which show that Sesame Street does not prepare poverty children for first grade and does not narrow the achievement gap that now exists between the poor and the middle-class child. (Author/CB)

In a follow-up study, it was found that children with good early phonological awareness had well-developed lexical and sublexical reading and spelling procedures. Results suggest that early phonological skills relate more strongly to the development of sublexical than lexical processing systems. (Author/LB)

Parents are not recommended to teach their preschoolers to read. Although some children learn to read before school, forcing a child to read can have many damaging effects. Instead, parents are encouraged to talk to their child, to develop important reading readiness skills in their child, and to build their child's background of experiences. (TM)

This document reports on the effects of an integenerational program which was conducted to involve senior citizen volunteers with preschool children in a university day care setting. The primary emphases of the project were to enhance the children's reading readiness and foster a mutually beneficial relationship between seniors and children.…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the relationships among alphabet skills, auditory discrimination, and visual discrimination for five-year-olds prior to kindergarten were similar to those found in studies of subskills of first grade children. The sample consisted of 23 middle class nursery school children between the ages of 5.1 and…

Introducing Preschool Children to Reading through Parent Involvement is a project funded by a New York State Education Department mini-grant. The major activity of the project is to inform parents of preschool children of the research findings and theories concerning reading to young children. Three newsletters are mailed each year to families…

Jean Piaget's theory seems to lend support to reading specialists who believe that concrete operational thought constitutes a necessary and sufficient condition for learning to read. Preoperational children cannot deal with the complex relationships inherent in reading because they are tied perceptually to the immediate situation or…

Parents and teachers are encouraged in this paper to provide home and school cognitive science activities to help their preschool-age children develop prereading skills. Many of the activities mentioned could be introduced prior to the age of 3 years and all by the age of 5 years. In general, activities that develop cognitive skills should precede…

FOUR STUDIES CONDUCTED BY THE MOUNT VERNON PUBLIC SCHOOLS OVER A PERIOD OF FIVE SEMESTERS INVOLVED MACHINE-TEACHING READING TO 240 DISADVANTAGED PREKINDERGARTEN CHILDREN FROM THE CHILDREN'S CENTER AND THE CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER TO PREPARE THEM FOR MORE SUCCESSFUL KINDERGARTEN LEARNING THROUGH ACADEMICALLY-ORIENTED READINESS ACTIVITIES IN AN…

This handbook describes research projects of the School of Education, University of Bristol. Eight current projects are briefly described, and references are listed for each. These projects include (1) a pilot project working with probationary teachers, (2) a study of teachers' support agencies, (3) a longitudinal study of language development in…

The effects of certain procedures as part of the curriculum in early childhood on the perceptual readiness of children exposed to it are explored. The procedures include: (1) the testing of each child to determine perceptual strengths and weaknesses; (2) the development of "learning print" for each child: a description of integrities and deficits…

The development of four-year-old children's knowledge of letters and printed words was studied to determine if preschool children begin reading, and if so, how. A natural hierarchy of knowledge was noted. (MKM)

Discusses a study designed to determine whether early reading instruction constitutes a positive factor in the cognitive development of children. The subjects for this study were 25 children in a nursery school in Macerata, Italy. (CFM)

This research review concludes that precocious reading ability is a complex skill, and levels of specific subskills vary widely among individuals. Precocious reading ability is moderately associated with general intelligence and with academic achievement. Parents may encourage the early development of reading through natural and mutually enjoyable…